Epilogue

[lesmodsalouette]

EPILOGUE

Your stopped time has restarted. Whether you were in the grassy field or fighting for your life on the castle grounds, you'll suddenly find yourself in an untouched area of the gardens. Ish is back, and so are the items, and the dead.

You return to Chateau Ambregris with the certain knowledge that come Monday, you will greet a new week, in a home of your own choosing. No longer will the chime of the clocks hunt you down, no longer will the oppressive scent of roses haunt your senses, no longer will you be forced to watch the death of those you've come to love and hate.

Parting is such a bittersweet sorrow, isn't it?

Make merry one last time, in this castle of illusions. Ironically, your memories of this stolen time that never existed are the one thing that will truly remain to you.

END NOTES

🔮 All dead are revived as tsukumogami! Congrats on your immortality(?)
🔮 Any other contracts made with Ish will be honored
🔮 Characters may choose to leave for any world they desire.
🔮 Time has not passed while you were stuck in this loop!
🔮 There will be no cross-dimensional world travel, except for on Samhain (Witches New Year October 31st/November 1st). On these dates, Ish will enable everyone to visit each other's world freely.
🔮 Universal Communication will be possible, courtesy of Manba and Ish. Everyone who wants one will be given a small fox that can communicate with other foxes through voice and video; the foxes can talk and are fairly simple creatures, enjoy them and give them fried tofu once in a while.
🔮 Powers are on for the finale, but Ish will step in and yeet anyone who gets too out of hand back to their homeworld, so play nice! (or relatively nice. )

[OOC: Welcome to your epilogue! The timeloop is ended, the evil has been defeated, and you have some time to catch your breath in the castle before the rest of your life begins! ]

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[distain]

[Her mouth twitches at the...compliment? It's a smile, albeit a slight and somewhat unreadable one.]

It's a bloodline that will die with me, so soon the Grace name, too, will be erased from history. You might be one of the last to hear about it.

[It isn't quite true. Theirs was a longstanding house, before decades of disease and her father's paranoid violence eroded what was left of the old blood. But maybe it's what she hopes for - unable to inherit anything, it's not like she minds if the Graces are simply erased.]

[siffriend]

I'd be happy to be, if you wanted to share. But that isn't what I wanted to ask about.

[ They press a hand to their chest, uncertain for a moment before speaking up again. ]

It... Your disease, it affects the men in your family, right? [ ... ] If you'd like, or... you need it, then any House of Change in Vaugarde offers lessons in Bodycraft.

[ It's a celebrated thing, even. And she wouldn't be the first they'd known to change their body in that way -- assuming that the disease can only affect men, which is how it sounds.

(You might be wrong, or... crossing a line, but...) ]

[distain]

[She thinks about Siffrin's words for a while, trying to determine their meaning. At first, she thinks the disease doesn't matter anymore, so there's no need to remove it from her body. Andrew's keen enough to catch the meaning eventually. Is it her name? They're the first to bring it up here, despite the fact that it's a stigma back home. But no... it's the Blue Star Curse and its family history.

When she does respond, it's a rejection of their assumption, but not one with any revulsion.]

Women's lives aren't usually recorded, so there's little history of how the Blue Star affects them. Such cases are rare but not impossible. I am merely exceptionally lucky.

...It's not as if I haven't considered it: Would things have been easier if I'd been born a man? I'd be an heir rather than expected to produce one, but Fat might have resented me even more... he might have killed me from the start. And the disease surely would have been much worse. In the end, I suppose, it being his daughter that undoes him is most satisfying to me.

[siffriend]

[ (Oh.

Okay, you were wrong, but she isn't offended by that.)

They relax a little, nodding slightly. A shame that there isn't more recording; every life deserves to have their story heard. At least, Siffrin thinks so. And... it would have helped Andrew, surely. In understanding her own, in seeing herself in others.

(If only there was such a book for you.) ]

Okay. I'm glad you can have your own kind of revenge on him, Andrew. He... doesn't sound all that kind, from what you've told me.

[ In reference to Herta and her family especially.

(... You should ask about her plans for after this.

Somehow, all of this is so nostalgic. You don't...) ]

So, now what?

[distain]

[Hopefully, Siffrin can forgive her a little bit of period-appropriate inelegance on the topic of gender, which she is only just now really learning about and certainly given something more now to think about, even if her ultimate conclusion as the same as it's always been.]

He isn't. He is cruel, and he holds others beneath him for the sake of his own desires. It's funny... He's been chasing anything to extend his lifespan at any cost, petrified of death, and here I had this fall into my lap.

[Once again, luckily according to graveyard chat, she'll be going home with A Glock.

At the question of what's next, Andrew can only tilt her head to the side.]

My goals haven't changed, though my methods might have to. I should be asking you instead, Siffrin...what is it that you want?

[siffriend]

[ No, it's fine, truthfully... changing oneself is forbidden in one land, welcomed in another, and forgotten as far as the last goes. Siffrin could only go on their own feelings about it, but-- well, it's muddled. What with their own lack of self.

Good her goals remain the same, even if the methods differ. He thinks that Andrew and Herta deserve the chance to speak as true equals... whatever may come of it. ]

To break the cycle back in my world.

[ ... It isn't exactly the answer she's seeking though, probably. ]

[distain]

And meet with the other members of your family for a while. [She still doesn't know what answer she was seeking. When it comes to this - the "what's next?" - leaves her uneasy and unmoored. Andrew doesn't like the uncertainty of it, but for her, and perhaps even for Siffrin, there's really no direction but forward.]

Does it feel more or less daunting now? [For all intents and purposes, they have more tools on their side now; it's just that the makeup of everything has changed.] You have extra chapters to add to the story.

[siffriend]

[ For a while, sure. However long that lasts.

There really is no direction but forward... even as they keep glancing back at the past, hoping it'll gently encircle their wrist once again, keeping them in place. Safe, safe. ]

Hmmm. A little bit of both. I... have some good ideas, thanks to this, about the loops themselves... talking to Raha, Homura, and Chara helped a lot. But at the same time, I might be the problem, so I can't really say I'm looking forward to finding out.

[ More like they know they're probably the problem, or at least their feelings are, and confronting that? Pssh. Awful. Terrible. Their family members are gonna hate them if that's true. ]

Who knows. Maybe I'll stick it out just a little longer. Raha said he'll wait, after all. [ A joke...? Who can say.

... ]

I know he's got patience, but... if I do take a while, can you tell him off?

[distain]

["Tell him off," Siffrin says, as if a simple scolding would ever be enough to easily deter G'raha..]

Do you think he'll listen to me? He's so stubborn. I'm sure that'll be much harder to do than you make it sound.

[It's not a blanket refusal, if only because there's no way for Andrew, who has not been functionally immortal before as the two of them have, to know what all of the circumstances might be.]

Make it easier on the both of us, and don't get too tied up. If you're the problem, then no one will know better than you how to solve it. [Teasing, maybe, but she also thinks they have the will to see this done. She looks down at her hand, thinking about it, then extends it. Even if they only shake on things, it'll be an affirmation.]

[siffriend]

[ "He's so stubborn" as if that isn't the root of every spat they've had. Two incredibly stubborn people, a tug of war either of them rarely wins without scrapes and scratches. But it was worth a shot anyway, and

(-- Oh!

...

She's reaching out first. You feel your throat tighten and)

he takes her hand with both of his, holding it tightly. Not painfully, but firmly. Quiet for a long moment, trying to find the words to say. ]

It's hard to say goodbye, [ they finally reply, soft and guilty. Even now, it is. Wanting to keep her, G'raha, their friends in Water Lily a moment longer... ] Can I give you something?